


Beyond the Sea

by alkhale



Series: Voltron Elemental AU [1]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Elemental!AU, F/M, Onesided Reader/ Shiro if ya squint, Waterelemental!Lance, implied sex, lance/reader - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-11
Updated: 2018-01-11
Packaged: 2019-03-03 09:14:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,798
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13338126
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/alkhale/pseuds/alkhale
Summary: Smooth hands move like water down your body. Your head tilts back as lips press against the side of your neck. Your legs shift and the body above you is thrumming with life and warmth and his eyes are so impossibly deep as he peers up at you through long lashes. Your breath catches and you feel the storm raging around the two of you as he presses his lips to your skin and practically purrs against you.“I want you to drown in me,” Lance murmurs, voice thick and eyes searing against your skin as your world becomes only two.





	Beyond the Sea

**Author's Note:**

> I fell into Voltron trash and I've been meaning to finally start posting stories on AO3. Lance is precious and has so much more depth to him than people realize and he had to be first.
> 
> Fire!Keith is next.
> 
> Hope you enjoy!

You’ve always been afraid of water.

It was an irrational fear, really. You don’t know where it stemmed from or where it came from. You’re almost certain it’s because you think air and water aren’t meant to get along with each other.

“That’s hard to believe,” Shirogane Takashi, your physics teacher comments when you express your worries one day in his classroom after regular school hours. You didn’t know when you’d taken to keeping him company in this wide classroom as he worked on grading papers—“You missed this question here.”—but you liked the comfort and stability your physics teacher brought with him, despite being an air elemental himself.

“What’s so hard about it?” You watch a mini tornado form on your fingertips as you rest your head on his desk.

“Wind and water,” Shiro paused, giving you a look as though you should already know this yourself from his lessons. “Work in tandem with each other all the time.”

“I think fire is much more like us,” You respond, flicking your fingers and the tornadoes disperse as if they never existed. “Water is stagnant—it’s endless.”

Shiro is much more similar to earth. But those stormy eyes and tuft of white amidst thick black betray the breeze that always flutters past him and tugs at his clothes. He’s everything you’d like to be as an air element solely for the reason that he’s the least like your element. Shiro is stable and tranquil, constant, like the wind pushing the sails of a boat or gently playing along the fans of a windmill.

Air is unpredictable. The wind is fickle, always changing. Fierce storms conjure out of nowhere and fluttering breezes barely brush past leaves. It’s free and wild and moving, always moving. It’s partially why you’re always so restless. You can never find yourself sitting in one place to long before letting a breeze float you upwards or carry you wherever you wish.

Air is fleeting.

“You missed another one right here.”

“It’s because your tests are too hard.”

“Then stop flying out the window every time you get bored.”

\----------------------

Lance McClain is nowhere near threatening.

Or at least, he shouldn’t be.  
He was always laughing, bubbles floated and trickled into the air before popping softly. Impossibly blue eyes always shone with mirth and happiness. His teeth were always showing, curved into a bright smile or a teasing grin. Though he was often credited to being a goofball or class clown, people flocked to him. Wading through the shallows to enjoy the waves lapping at their toes as he brought laughter to their lips and managed to slip his way through all their cracks.

Lance was water, through and through, fluid and always shifting. Little jets of water sprouted from his fingertips—usually aimed toward the fire elemental sitting in the corner, Keith, you think, which would send the two into another rowdy fight that had the room steaming and left scorch marks on the desks. And despite that, you balked when seeing the two of them tucking into their lunches together with two other students, earth elementals, chatting and laughing.

Lance frightened you.

There was nothing hiding in murky depths. Lance was crystal clear like shimmering beaches along tropical coasts. Your fear was irrational and totally uncalled for and yet you could never bring yourself toss it aside or get anywhere near the water boy because—

You didn’t want to drown.

Your fears manifest in front of you full force one school day as you stare out the window, watching a pair of birds coasting on a slack breeze.

You don’t feel him approach your desk. There’s no flare of heat or fluttering breeze, it’s quiet and tranquil and suddenly he is there, hand gripping on a worksheet that’s dampening a bit at the corners.

“Looks like we’re partners!”

Your eyes widen and your mouth falls open as you nearly screech in surprise from his sudden appearance, a window forcibly lunging open as a quick breeze curls around you. Lance looks momentarily horrified, mouth agape and face pale as his eyes grow wet and drips of water begin to fall from his fingertips, bubbles rising and quickly popping nervously from his shoulders. “S-Sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you!”

His eyes are darting around and he looks frantic to find any way to keep you from leaping out that window. “I-I know my good looks can be pretty blinding sometimes, didn’t mean to take you by surprise.”

An earnest and boyish grin touches his lips, eyes hopeful and shining and you pause, practically one foot out the window. Half the class in watching in slight bemusement while the other half are finally bunkering down to finish their work. A bubble pops by your ear and you force the wind whipping around you to quiet as you adjust your clothes and run a hand through your windswept hair.

“Sorry,” You finally manage, fingers drumming along the top of your desk and Lance’s eyes are drawn to the movement, watching the soft tap tap against your desktop. “I’m—I scare easy.”

“I can tell,” he looks amused now, eyes shining with mirth and that boyish grin curling over his lips again. He fluidly pulls a chair around and sits in it backwards so he can rest his arms on the back of it and face you. “Don’t worry, sweetheart, I won’t let you drown.”

You doubt he understands how much weight you want to put into his words.

\-------------------------

Lance approaches you several more times after that, as though one meeting suddenly meant he was allowed to be a part of your life. (And you couldn’t figure out if that was good or bad yet.)

He was the first one to your desk the moment class ended and waiting by your desk before class started. Priding yourself on your speed and agility, you were surprised to find him keeping pace with you from class to class, matching you stride for stride as bubbles popped pleasantly off his shoulders and little tornadoes kicked at your heels.

He’s a poor flirt. You find it both endearing and annoying. Though a week in he stops the constant pickup lines in favor of asking you questions about yourself. You humor him from time to time and gradually inquire about him as well. He has a big family. He loves the beach—go figure—and garlic knots. 

You find out that just as you had suspected, there’s more depth to his ocean blue eyes and cheery smiles. He’s like the ocean, calm and tranquil and in seconds powerful and crashing. His presence crashes around you like a tidal wave and pools around you, enveloping you in shallow depths and you don’t dare tread any farther. Not yet. Lance fears his own depths, you find out one evening when the two of you are tucked into the corner of the classroom trying to finish your project.

“Usually I pair up with Hunk and Pidge—you know them right? But Keith just looked so put off so I felt bad for the guy,” he says it with a grin and a halfhearted shrug, lips curling upwards and eyes shining, but the crystal clear blue is murky. “I’m sure the last thing he’d want is my pity though.”

You’re silent as Lance’s eyes flicker to the other side of the room where his friends are gathered, laughing and hard at work and you notice suddenly that the bubbles that floated off Lance’s shoulders had ceased and a small puddle was forming where his fingertips touched your desk. “But they look like they’re doing fine, don’t they?”

There’s depth to his words. You glance to his face and see the wetness behind his eyes and you blow a small breeze past your lips, staring hard at your hands before you swallowed.

“When water disappears,” you start, and Lance’s attention is quickly focused on you, intense blue eyes meeting your gaze in earnest and you use the wind at your back and tugging at your hair to strengthen yourself. “People notice. People will always notice.”

Lance stares at you with those crystal clear blue eyes and doesn’t say a word, drinking in everything you’d just said. You feel your face grow hot and wind is suddenly buffeting around you as you lamely tuck strands of hair behind your ears. “Well, water’s not like air at least. People don’t notice when the wind disappears.”

Lance murmurs something in his native tongue and you glance up with furrowed brows when he shyly meets your gaze, eyes swimming and your breath catches.

“The ocean always notices.”

\-------------------------

“You started making friends.”

A gust of wind follows as you turn, eyes glancing upward to meet Shiro’s warm stormy irises. The wind around you instantly quiets despite the burning instinct to let it flow freely around you. Shiro is never a mess of breezes and gusts, he’s calm and walks with only a little kick of air at his heels.

“I’ve always had friends,” You correct, in a split second you add, “I have you.”

Shiro shakes his head with a smile playing on his lips. “They’re a good bunch.” He’s referring to Hunk, Pidge, Keith and of course, Lance, the group you had taken to finding yourself spending more and more time with.

“You’re not abandoning me now, are you?” You tease, but your voice is airy and Shiro affectionately ruffles your already windblown hair.

“Get to class,” he smiles his bright and warming smile and gathers his things as he heads off to teach his next class.

You feel your heart flutter in relief and you’re left standing there for a moment, thinking everything was alright when Shiro calls out, his voice carried on the wind.

“I won’t be around forever, you know.”

A sharp breeze cuts a thin line along your palm, but the pain doesn’t match the sinking feeling in your heart.

\----------------------------

“What’s wrong?”

Your eyes are stormy, muddled and confused. Your hair is tangled up and knotted all around you as a constant breeze curls tight to your body. Lance is standing only a little ways away, his bright blue eyes focusing so intently on you and filled with warmth and worry.

It scares you.

“Nothing,” your words are as airy as you feel and you card your fingers through unkempt strands. “I’m fine.”

Lance doesn’t say anything for a long time. You wonder for moment if he’d left when he’s suddenly in your line of vision, bending down on one knee as water begins to shift and morph between his fingers. You watch, mystified as it begins to take a shaky form and you stare in amazement at the transparent guitar now situated in his hands.

“Any requests?” He grins, eyes shining and hopeful.

A laugh tears from your lips, breezy and filled with heartache and wonder. You clap your hands together and bring them to your lips, eyes shining and you offer a soft suggestion.

You don’t realize when the tornado that had curled around you stops.

The two of you stay like that, for a long time. Lance trying to strum his water guitar and his fluid voice filling your ears as you sit side by side. You idly let your fingers coast on sightless breezes, curling against the tugs of wind that no one else can see. You don’t realize how intently Lance is watching you, eyes intense and deep and beautiful until you turn with a small little smile.

The water the guitar in his hands disperses in a cloud of bubbles and you blink once, happy and content. “Lance?”

And then he kisses you.

\----------------------

You don’t know how long it’s been since you’ve last spoken to Lance.

You feel him though. In fleeting glances and hesitant hands. He’s always there, sitting several seats behind you, face set in stone and never revealing anything, like the murkiest of ponds. He looks as though he’s drowning when he looks at you, words playing on his lips that never come up to the surface, bubbles cease to fill the room.

You’re a mess yourself. Your hair is in constant disarray and students avoid the tempests lashing at your heels because—

You miss him.

Pidge and Hunk always look as though there are things they wish to say. Whether the rumbling of the ground beneath Hunk’s feet or the tightening of vines around Pidge’s hands. You stumble through your daze in a mindless daze, heart aching and wishing for something, some kind of clarity in the storm you’ve created for yourself. You long for the comfort of Shiro’s presence but know you will find no solace there.

It is fire that lights your way.

Keith Kogane comes to a sharp stop in front of you. Flames lick at his fingers and his eyes sear burns across your body as you pause, books in hand and hair fluttering nervously around you.

“You hurt him.”

You feel as though you’ve been burned but your eyes narrow and a storm begins to build around your feet, curling and lashing out. “Who do you think—“

Before you can say anything else Keith suddenly tosses a folder your way. It coasts in the air and you grab it before it falls as Keith brushes past you in a flare of heat and rolling eyes. “Airheads, all of them.”

You bristle at his words but find your restless curiosity drawn toward the folder in your hands. You distinctly remember Keith being in the photography club despite his destructive nature and you hesitantly shift through the contents.

It seems like years worth of words piled into nothing.

Keith photographs people, you realize. His friends. His family. The people precious in his life that he sticks to looking through a lens so he won’t burn them. You see pictures of Shiro and you linger before digging deeper, finding pictures of Pidge and Hunk and Lance—

He’s always been looking, you realize. You flip through all the photos of Lance, drinking them in. There’s shots of him laughing and grinning, shots of him angry and upset or pouting. Wet behind the eyes and bubbles floating around him, but his eyes are always straying somewhere else. It isn’t until you get halfway through you realize it’s you. It’s always been you.

There’s shots of Lance looking after your retreating form. Shots of him peering through windows to where you were coasting along a breeze. His eyes were always on you, always watching you, always filled with so much—

Your feet lift from the ground and the wind carries you home.

\---------------------------

You catch him exiting the school building when you coast down on a breeze and throw yourself forward. His eyes shoot upwards and he barely has time to wrap his arms around you as you tumble into him and send you both falling to the floor in a mix of water and air.

“What were you thinking—“

You cup his cheeks and press your forehead to his. Lance freezes, breath catching and eyes never leaving yours and your heart falls so hard when you finally realize how wonderfully beautiful those blue eyes are.

He’s quiet but you feel his heart hammering in his chest, ripples against the tide. Wind is curling softly around the two of you and you press yourself to him.

“Don’t let me drown.”

\--------------------------

You don’t know where you end and he begins.

Smooth hands move like water down your body. Your head tilts back as lips press against the side of your neck. Your legs shift and the body above you is thrumming with life and warmth and his eyes are so impossibly deep as he peers up at you through long lashes. Your breath catches and you feel the storm raging around the two of you as he presses his lips to your skin and practically purrs against you.

“I want you to drown in me,” Lance murmurs, voice thick and eyes searing against your skin as your breath catches.

Your fingers card through his hair and he brings your hand to his lips, pressing a soft kiss and humming against your skin.

His movements are fluid. He slips through your fingers and envelops you as you sink further into his depths. You feel no panic or fear, only warmth and an intense hunger to consume and to fill. The two of you are in the eye of the storm, locked out to anyone else but yourselves.

“I love you,” he purrs, breath ghosting over your thighs and your breath hitches.

Your lips part to tell him the same but his mouth finds home and you see stars, wind and water working in tandem.

And you float in nothing but pure ecstasy.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading!


End file.
